The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Time taken to read - 4 days in and out Pages - 410 Publisher - Quirk Source - ?bought I actually can't remember but it is second hand Blurb from Goodreads Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend. Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood. But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she--and her book club--are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community. My Review Set in the 1990's I actually thought it was set much further back, like the 60's just with the mindset of the wives and how the husbands/men essentially rule the roost. We open with our main character Patricia and her book club. Initially is it run but one of those judgey controlling amost like a HOA person who just loves to belittle and take charge. Anyway end up with Patricia and a few of the others having their own book club and reading true crime and they all become close. Patricia gets a new neighbour, James and things go a bit chaotic when Patricia finds James isn't what he initially seems to be. I totally get why this is a marmite read, there are some parts I really liked and felt done so so well and other parts really frustrated me. It also seems, to me anyway, that it bites off a lot more than it can chew. Like almost different stories and themes that are all crammed in together. So the blurb pretty much straight out tells you James is a monster and absolutely hints at him being a vampire. Yet we don't see or hear that really until a good chunk later, there is a lot of buildup like the house wives and the book club I really liked that, we got to know them and like/dislike them. There is a few horrible scenes with animals which I hate and I get it it is to drive the horror and how scary those things would be. The kid victims we don't really hear about them mostly in passing which is unusual in vampire books. Patricia was really infuriating at times, that scene with the fingers in the mouth because she was a nurse like what, that was just strange. How she went out of her way to help James in the beginning, I couldn't decide was that a vampire pull? Like a mind trick, I don't think it was, was it attraction, bored house wife, I don't think that was it either. Some stuff just left you scratching your head like what was the point? Patricia's actions and behaviours generally ripped my knittin but I was still rooting for her. There are a few scenes that might trigger some, sa (assault), child victims but instead of the normal neck biting it is the top of the thigh. That was another thing, without spoilers but when Patricia sees what she sees why was her go to drugs? Like my brain just couldn't fathom it. Things would happen and then there would be almost no follow up or explanation and I know sometimes the author likes the reader to draw their own conclusions but it left me a bit meh. I have read a ton of vamp books and as many movies so coming up with new ideas and lore isn't easy. Hendrix did manage to surprise me with some new things, well new to me anyway, so overall its a 3/5. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, I did really like some parts, I was frustrated and annoyed with others. I have read him before and I will absolutely read him again.